Article 26

Abstract

Art 26 restates the pillar of treaty law and the pivotal key to international law: pacta sunt servanda. Considering its significance, the provision is not too prominently placed in Part III of the Convention. The Preamble, after all, highlights pacta sunt servanda by aligning the principle with two others basic corner stones of treaty law: free consent and good faith (3rd recital). Rephrasing the principle pacta sunt servanda in Art 26 is first and foremost of symbolic significance. As Verdross rightly stresses, the binding force of international treaties has logical priority to any particular treaty and thus cannot itself be the legal consequence of a treaty such as the VCLT.

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